Turkish Army commanding insurgents in northern Syria: Report

Turkish Army officers are directly commanding insurgents in northern Syria, including the cities of Idlib and Aleppo, a report says.According to a Thursday report by Debkafile, which is widely believed to have close links to Israeli intelligence sources,

insurgents in the two cities receive orders from headquarters in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep.

Meanwhile, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), David Petraeus, arrived in Ankara on Monday to discuss Turkeyâ€™s proposal to expand its military presence in Syria. After meeting with Turkish military and intelligence chiefs, Petraeus flew to Israel to hold similar talks with the Tel Aviv regime, the report said.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the Western governments to â€œreassessâ€ their position on Syria, criticizing them for relying on terrorist groups to overthrow the Syrian government.

On June 21, The New York Times also reported that a group of CIA officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Damascus says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the armed militants are foreign nationals.

Damascus also says the insurgents are supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on August 1 that the country is engaged in a â€œcrucial and heroicâ€ battle that will determine the destiny of the nation.